Spring Has Sprung

On first inspection, this somewhat weathered '41 Hudson Traveler coupe may cause some readers to question the sanity of the Hot Rod staff. Sure, we'll admit that it's a bit rough around a lot of edges. But when owner and lifelong Hudson fanatic Dany Spring told us about the car's racing history, we realized it isn't just some hashed-out junker but an historic dragstrip survivor. How historic? This baby ran E/Modified Production at the '63 AHRA Grand Nationals, the '65 and '66 Hot Rod Magazine Drags, and the '66, '67, and '68 NHRA Winternationals, to name just a few. Victories include a class win at the '66 Winternats and a class low-e.t. record at Irwindale in '67.

Originally built by a Southern California racer by the name of Dick Thorp, who named it That Ol' Blue Thing, Spring bought the Hudson in 2001 and put it back on the track after a near-30-year hibernation. Spring, a 40-year-old general manager at a wood-molding company, comes from a family of Hudson owners, and it isn't uncommon to find him working alongside his dad on any one of the 20 or so Hudsons that decorate the family's Ontario, California, compound.

Dany says it wasn't difficult to resist the temptation to plop a Chevy between the rails. That's because there's plenty of speed equipment available on the swap meet scene and from outfits like Clifford Performance to run some very impressive times. So far, the 2,700-pound bomber has turned a best performance of 14.79 at 91 mph at the elevation-hampered Palmdale, California, facility. Corrected for sea level, that's like 14.3s--not bad for a half- century-old flathead six. It may not be pretty, but as they say in the restoration world, it's only original once, and Dany doesn't plan on changing a thing.